This Flagship provides the scientific rigour for addressing the management imperative to enable sustainable resource use of our coastal areas while protecting New Zealand’s highly valuable estuaries and coastal habitats.
These environments are highly valued for their productivity and ecosystem services, such as shellfish habitat, wildlife habitat, buffering against storm surges and erosion, sequestering carbon, and filtering pollutants from water. Recreation, tourism and sustainable and profitable aquaculture thrive in healthy estuaries and coastal environments, generating revenue and jobs. However, estuaries and coastal environments, as well as coastal infrastructure like ports and harbours, are impacted by climate change, sea-level rise and human modification of catchments, necessitating science-based solutions for their protection, restoration and use.
This Flagship develops predictive models and integrated observing systems to better support policy development and holistic land-to-sea management. We will use remote sensing and data science to increase the spatial and temporal understanding of the fluxes of key substances such as nutrients, carbon and sediment. Predictive models of critical ecosystem attributes will be used to gain new insights into ecological responses and economic trade-offs arising from catchment interventions, towards effective management approaches. We will deliver information on seafloor ecosystem functioning and resilience to facilitate and support catchment and marine spatial planning.
